Internet-based services offer users the convenience to communicate flexibly using a variety of media types and media devices. Users not only employ these devices for personal applications, e.g., social networking, personal finance, entertainment, but also for business. As the number of devices connecting to the Internet increase (along with their respective functionalities), these devices produce an ever increasing flow of information that is considered Over-The-Top (OTT) communication. OTT communications typically involve end users communicating with each other in a peer-to-peer mode, mostly utilizing proprietary and private signaling protocols. Lawful intercept of OTT communications poses significant challenges, in large part, because the information flows do not traverse pre-designated common points in the communication paths, and because such intercept require accurate and timely identification. That is, traditionally, lawful intercept can be readily executed because the information flows through a centralized signaling system (e.g., signaling system 7 (SS7)). Thus, service providers tasked with implementing a lawful intercept of such communications have limited options. For example, such options include directing all OTT traffic to a signaling gateway (which is not practical, as this creates a single point of failure as well as a network bottleneck) or conducting a labor-intensive and costly analysis of the network traffic. Moreover, lawful intercept often cannot be performed in a timely manner because the network infrastructure must be manually configured. Consequently, lawful intercept in the context of OTT traffic imposes significant burdens on the operations of service providers and law enforcement agencies (LEA).
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that provides accurate and timely lawful intercept for OTT communications.